James Watt Building

Glasgow University Archive Services, Building Photographs

The construction of the James Watt South Engineering Building, University of Glasgow, 1955.

The James Watt Engineering Building was designed by architect Sir John J Burnet was located on the north east corner of the Gilbert Scott Building on Gilmorehill. It was opened by Lord Kelvin in 1901 and was said to contain the finest science laboratories in the United Kingdom. The building was extended in 1908 and again in 1920. In the 1950s work began adding the new James Watt South building attached to the south side of the first. Designed by Keppie, Henderson & Partners (in a style that has been roundly condemned as unsympathetic to its surroundings), it opened in 1958.

The photograph shows the foundations being laid for the new Engineering building. On the left is the Gilbert Scott Building, with the Anatomy (or Thomson) Building in the background.